In the time that I have become an atheist, it has come to my attention that being such a thing comes with a lot of baggage in the theists world. The non belief of an all seeing, all-knowing imaginary friend cannot be absorbed by the preprogrammed minds of theists.

For example, I was exploring the possibility of dating a young lady my age. We share the same interests, hobbies, aspirations, etc. But when it came to the question of religion, my response of "I'm an outspoken atheist" did not sit well with this girl. She immediately went into the "must save him from the depths of hell" evangelist mode, and questioned my non-belief. Out of respect I didn't question hers, I simply answered her questions as clearly and as respectfully as possible. She then went on a tirade about how my lack of belief in a god gives a bad foundation for a relationship.

Now, my lack of theistic views do not justify a lack of morality or ability to function in society, if anything, my genuine ability to judge people based on what they do, rather than a medieval separation of religions or race or amount of money I freely give to an institution that does nothing but hate and turn away ideas (stem cell research anyone?), these ideas would make me a better person in everyones eyes if not for a lack of belief in some god no one really knows exists.

Even atheists are atheists for the wrong reasons sometimes. Some are atheists because all of their friends are atheists too, so it must have some bearing. They don't truly believe in a lack of institution and are engulfed in a system that has been taught to them since birth. A belief that, when put into place, destroys lives and alienates those who think on their own, therefore creating underground communities of those who can think outside of the box. This underground community no doubt carries its stragglers who jump on the bandwagon because they need friends, understandable, and this can be said about religion as well, but they are doing it for the wrong reasons nonetheless.

Now, in its essence, religion can be a good thing. It gathers those with similar ideas together to converse those ideas and expand on them. It is when religion becomes an institution of hate that is so powerful, no one dares to stop it and those who turn away are shunned by their communities and forced underground. It is when a religion can say to its participants that another religion is evil and everyone participating considers it true, simply because it was told to them. Religion is easy to believe in. You are told from day one that it is true so it must be true. To doubt and question and think is hard, and thats why I consider those who are atheist to be truly intelligent.

I run a website. Its a simple website that spawned from a hobby of mine I started on Myspace awhile back called a daily enlightenment. I would write stories, observations, whatever in such a way that when someone read it, they would think in a different level then if they hadn't read it before, making them enlightened. Most of these posts were just odd ideas, thrown around to test the waters of humor, nothing religious, political, or controversial at all, just funny yet enlightening. Eventually though I started to turn up the heat. I would start getting serious about social matters at the time, giving my views about censorship, corporatism, abortion and eventually religion. Now, I don't have the exact writing saved from that day saved, but I had put religion in a humorous context, allowing those who read it to laugh at their own hatred and bigotism. Some laughed, others didn't. I lost a lot of my readership that day, more than any other post I had ever posted before, and I had said some crazy shit before, religion just happened to be the one thing that differenced them from my writings. Now I stick with the basics and keep my religious thoughts mostly to a select few people whom I can freely debate and discuss these topics with. I choose not to post my religious beliefs (or lack thereof) to keep those who are my loyal readers loyal and keep to the original purpose of my daily enlightenment's, to enlighten as many people as possible and leave them to make better decisions, not to influence decisions.

Now my question to the freethinking community is this, should I be more outward to the online community with the opening of my own personal website, or should I continue my original postings of idiotic ideas that amuse and enlighten? But more importantly, Where has the world gone to when the ideas of a free-thinker are stricken down because its not of the "norm"?